Nunavik gets own social housing bureau

KUUJJUAQ — From now on, Nunavik is officially in charge of its ever-growing stock of low-cost social housing units.

On April 11, Quebec’s minister of municipal affairs, Louise Harel, took an ulu and sliced a sealskin ribbon draped in front of the Kativik Municipal Housing Bureau’s new offices in Kuujjuaq.

“Its opening here reflects Quebec’s commitment to decentralization and regional development,” Harel said.

As a result of this move, Nunavik gains 19 jobs, although the transfer from Quebec City’s Société d’habitation du Québec — the SHQ — will cost the province an extra $2.5 million a year in operating expenses.

With an annual budget of $25 million, the new housing bureau, a nonprofit organization, will be able to count on $19 million a year from Quebec. The balance of its budget must come from rent collected from the occupants of Nunavik’s 1716 social housing units.

“Our main concern is to collect the current rent,” said Watson Fournier, the new housing bureau’s manager. “That’s our financial obligation to the SHQ.”

But this task may could be a challenge, due to Nunavik residents’ poor track record in paying monthly rents.

To collect on the $5 million Nunavimmiut have run up over the years in unpaid rent, the bureau is trying out a new — and hopefully more effective — strategy.

In the past, municipal housing authorities tried to collect arrears without much success. Housing bureau employees will now travel directly to communities and meet in person with people who owe back rent.

The two parties will then decide on the terms of repayment and draw up a contract.

“This will say, ‘This is how much I owe and this is how I’ll pay’,” Fournier said.

Every dollar of unpaid rent money that’s collected will go towards building more social housing units in Nunavik.

“The incentive to collect arrears is strong because the SHQ will match it dollar for dollar,” Fournier said. “I’m counting on the collective spirit of Nunavimmiut to pay.”

Nunavimmiut will, in any event, benefit from a flurry of social housing construction that’s set to begin this summer.

The opening of the region’s new housing bureau also coincided with the official word that Nunavik will see up to 80 new social housing units built this summer.

During her short visit to Kuujjuaq, Harel confirmed that Quebec will spend $10 million a year over five years on new social housing. This amount will be matched by the federal government, for a total of $100 million worth of new social housing in Nunavik.

Harel also said the SHQ will transfer responsibility for these new units’ construction to Makivik Corporation.